Bob Axtell wrote:

>Gus S Calabrese wrote:
>  
>
>>On 2006-Jun 27, at 04:56hrs AM, xkrja wrote:
>>
>>
>>Hi Jan,
>>the thing is that I'm trying to find some kind of general solution  
>>that can
>>work for many different cameras and brands. That is for cameras that  
>>support
>>USB control of course. Hopefully, when I have the hardware, its just to
>>write different software for different cameras.
>>
>>All major brands (Olympus, Canon, Nikon) have freeware/software for  
>>creating
>>your own software for controlling the camera from the PC and I hope  
>>to get
>>help from that.
>>
>>Would you mind supplying some URLs for the freeware software ?
>>AGSC
>>
>>Gus S Calabrese
>>Denver, CO
>>720 222 1309     303 908 7716 cell
>>I allow everything with  "spamcode2006"  in the subject or text to  
>>pass my spam filters
>>
>>
>>  
>>    
>>
>You might have a tough job, dependent on what you are trying to 
>accomplish. If you plan
>to control a camera in the field, like to take security or animal 
>pictures, you might be disappointed.
>When I looked at that a few years ago, the USB channel was only used to 
>pull pictures from the
>camera, nothing else. I was not aware of any digital camera whose USB 
>port allowed you to actually
>snap pix with it. But then, I am an ole guy and sometimes fail to pay 
>attention...
>
>There are two major issues when trying to use a digital camera for 
>security or animal purposes. The
>first is that the camera tries to shut itself off all the time with a 
>3-5 min timer. The way you can prevent\
>that is by toggling the focus ring (the first contact when pressing the 
>"shutter button", partially depressed).
>So, now, the camera is still on, so far so good.  Now you need to 
>actually press the  shutter button to
>get a picture taken. Some  cameras have LANC capabilities, such as SONY 
>VTRs and Video cameras.
>A few have the capability of being driven by a remote IR switch . Both 
>LANC and IR are easily handled,
>but the inexpensive cameras require you to get inside the camera to make 
>hard connections, a tough problem.
>The way we did it was to use optoisolators to isolate the camera signals 
>from the control board.
>
>Is Olympus still making cameras? I thought they got out of that business...
>
>--Bob
>  
>
The Fuji S2 and S3 have this capabilty.  I use it frequently.  You can 
use USB or Firewire with their Hyperutility software.  The auto-off 
feature could be a problem.  I haven't yet tried using it as a security 
cam or similar.

Dave
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